Phandom Haunting
by PhanFictionWriter
Summary: Dan and Phil are haunted by one of their psycho fans who helps them find their feelings for each other, but are the feelings even real? Phan (DanxPhil). Rated T for anything you might find offensive if you are too young including suicide mentions and some minor swearing incidents (Dan, for example).
1. With Death Comes a New Beginning

**Hi everyone! Hope you enjoy this little story. I'm not claiming to own anyone except Sasha Vespa (If you know where both her names come from, mention it in a PM/Review and win a prize... if you're female.. or like pictures of Dan). Rated T for some swearing, untimely deaths, and the general teenage themes. Thanks!**

* * *

Sasha Vespa sat in the passenger's side of her mother's car and stared out the window with her head on her hand. She was on her way to the hospital after she had a mental breakdown studying for her university exams. Not yet trusting her daughter after the breakdown, her mother decided to be her chauffer on the way to hospital. Sasha watched the cars pass quickly as if they were in reverse as they raced down the highway. Sasha's head was still reeling from the stress and shock of her panic attack and seeing the cars moving so quickly caused her heart to beat quicker and quicker with each passing second. She suddenly wanted nothing more than to get out and away from this confinement; she felt she was trapped like an animal in a cage. She looked down at the door handle frantically then around the car, her gaze finally coming to rest on her mother who was closely focused on the road. Her mother took her sight away from the road for a moment and met her daughter's before looking back.  
"There's no need to worry Sasha, you'll be better soon." she said soothingly, seeing the anxiety in her daughter's eyes. Sasha whispered a simple 'no' in response then pushed the door open on her side and scrambled out. Luckily, or perhaps unluckily, she had not been wearing a seatbelt causing her escape to go smoothly. She tumbled out and hit the ground hard rolling a few metres before coming to a stop. She heard her mother's car wheels screech and car horns blaring then saw a blinding flash of light and finally nothing.  
She felt no pain for she had no body to feel it in. There was nothing to feel, as if she was only a disconnected mind or a stray thought. She couldn't tell if she was blind or if there was simply nothing to see. She was not fearful though; it was as if she was simply resting peacefully at friend's house.  
"I was not expecting to see you here so soon, Sasha" a soft male voice rang out. She felt this voice was of a familiar stranger, one she must have known all her life. "You were so young, why have you decided you wanted to see me so soon?" The sweet voice asked rhetorically, it seemed. "You had such a full life ahead of you, too" it said wistfully. There was a moment's pause before he continued with, "Sadly, I cannot yet take you into my arms and may never..." Although she could not understand what he meant by this, she felt saddened by this turn of events. "I can however help you on your way." He said his voice suddenly filled with what could only be described as excitement. "What is the one thing you wish the most?" He asked her. Sasha did not know if she could yet talk as until this point she had only been conscious of her consciousness.  
"I wish," she began, her voice sounding just as normal as it had the previous day; as if she wasn't floating in an eternally blank abyss. "I wish to protect Daniel James Howell and those he holds dear." she said suddenly, as it was the first thing that came to her now reeling mind. In retrospect, this wasn't the most important thing on any person's list of necessities in the afterlife, but it was too late to change her mind.  
"Very well, you will be bound to this young man until the day he dies, take good care of him." the voice said happily as Sasha's vision became blindingly bright without a source of light.  
"Wait!" she called out into the nothingness. "Are there any rules I should know about?" she asked the entity awkwardly. He gave a delighted chuckle before responding.  
"Who do you think would enforce these rules if there were any?" he asked with an audible smile and his presence faded from around her.  
Sasha felt as if the ground had been stolen out from under her feet and was falling, or rather flying. She opened her renewed eyes to find herself being whisked across a shimmering blue ocean with no land in sight. Though her eyes and brain told her she was soaring, her body contradicted it. She felt no wind across her skin or mist in her face as was to be expected of the ocean. Instead, it was like she was standing in nothingness, causing her to wonder if any of this was real. The beautiful and glistening ocean was replaced with a glowing computer in a dark bedroom. She looked down at the chair and saw a familiar face sitting in it expressionlessly clicking occasionally. Excitement welled up in her as she realized who this was.  
"Dan!" she exclaimed and took a step towards his slouching figure. He, however, didn't seem to notice her. She looked at him closer and waved a hand in front of his face barely even causing him to blink. She supposed he couldn't see nor hear her. All at once she realized the problem.  
"I'm...dead." she said aloud, stunned. Verbalizing her thoughts seemed to cement the notion into her mind, telling her that it was true and that she had passed on. Suddenly, she realized the consequences of her actions. She would never again get to see her family; never hear her best friends laugh with her; never tell her secrets to the ones she confided in, knowing they would be safe from prying minds. She wished she could have told her mother how much she meant to her one last time, or to see her brother's smiling face before she had passed. The opportunities were all gone now, and she could never know what the consequences of her actions had been. To be lost from friends' and family's love forever seemed too much to handle. Just then, there was a knock at the bedroom door causing her to break out of her self-pitying.  
"Yeah?" Dan responded from his position at the computer without breaking his stare. The door opened and Phil Lester took a step into the room, recognizable from his ebony hair and slightly lopsided facial features.  
"Dan, I'm starving, wanna go out and get something for dinner?" he asked nonchalantly, as of there wasn't a girl standing next to Dan who had appeared out of nowhere. Dan stopped what he was doing and turned to look at Phil, in thought.  
"Sure, know where you wanna go?" he asked in reply, turning around to face the computer once again only to save his work and close out of the programs. Phil took a moment to think as Dan got to his feet and stretched his tall frame.

"Actually, I was thinking we could get something to bring back from the new diner across the street." he replied, pointing behind him as if that was where the building was located. Sasha knew neither Phil nor Dan could see her, but she felt as if this offer extended to her as well.

"The one that just opened?" Dan asked curiously, walking past Phil and out into the living area. She couldn't explain why, but she felt an overwhelming urge to follow him and see what he does next. Phil followed him out to continue the conversation as Dan took out his light winter coat.  
"Yeah, I heard they have really good food and it's popular even though it just opened. I actually hope it won't be crowded today." Phil replied, grabbing his equally furry coat. If Sasha was now in London, it must have been cold outside; especially if they were getting their coats. Dan opened the door to their flat and they both walked out, locking the door behind them.  
"Good, I'm starving." Dan repeated as they walked out their door and into the shiny metallic lift heading down to the ground level. Sasha stood behind them in the lift, feeling even more like a ghost than before. She reached her hand out to touch Dan's back but found it just to go through him. She sighed and Dan gave a slight shiver before continuing his conversation with Phil as the lift began to descend.  
"Phil, I was thinking before, and I had an idea for another Collab video..." the taller of the two began. For a moment, Sasha felt as if she was getting insider info and she should tweet everything she heard, then remembered how that was impossible given her current state. She then had an idea, though: Dan always has his phone on him, so what if she tried to tweet this info through his account.  
"...Okay Phil, what if we got _the_ Delia Smith to appear in one of our videos; like for the next Phil is not on fire? Some of the fans have been saying that Delia _actually_ knows who I am!" Dan asked excitedly, waiting for Phil to respond, reciprocating his enthusiasm. Phil looked at him for a moment as he thought this absurd concept over.  
"You realize how hard it would be to get the actual Delia Smith to be in our video? I mean who knows how busy she is in real life. And she wouldn't listen to some crazy fans of hers who want her to be in a random video on the internet, would she?" Phil asked, cracking his sideways smile and pointing his finger at Dan. There was an irony in this that did not go unnoticed by Dan as he chuckled in response, his arms bending to cover his stomach vaguely from his sides. Sasha reached for Dan's phone in his back pocket but found her hand only to go through it as it did other objects; the likely outcome. Once again, Dan shivered when she touched him.

"Cold?" Phil regarded, noticing his friend's shivers.

"Not really, just got a chill up my spine." Dan answered casually, pulling out the phone Sasha so wanted to get her hands on. She had yet another idea and quickly thought out a message she could leave on Dan's phone then touched it in his hands, hoping it would work even if it was farfetched and would most likely only work in a movie.

Soon enough, Dan's phone vibrated as he checked twitter while he walked out of the their building and out into the street. He found a message recently saved as a draft waiting for him.

'**hi dan! my name is sasha vespa, i was 19 years old as of dec 15 and lived in tallahassee, florida. that was until I committed suicide one night. I don't know how long ago that was but now I'm here with you! please believe me!'**

Dan's face went white as he read the message and stopped in his tracks. Phil turned around, curious as to why his friend stopped before they reached their intended destination.  
"Dan?" Phil inquired, noticing his friend's unnatural paleness and solemnity given that he was usually an exuberant character. Sasha stood next to Phil to better see Dan's reaction with an arrogant smile on her face.  
"Phil have you touched my phone recently?" Dan asked slowly, looking up at Phil, the confusion apparent in his voice. Sasha felt a bit guilty that the first person blamed for her message would be Phil, but he couldn't be blamed for too long as he had nothing to do with it.  
"No, why d'you ask?" Phil responded in equal confusion, stepping to look over Dan's shoulder at his message. "Who sent you that?" He added with a smile, seeming to find this situation comical. Dan looked at him sternly then back at his phone; he was clearly not amused.  
"That's just it, it wasn't _sent_ to me. It's in here as if _I_ was the one that wrote it." He said nervously, swiping through his other messages to himself including some early morning dream blurbs. Phil still seemed to think this was funny and continued his smiling.  
"Maybe you sleep text or something; we could record you when you sleep to see if you're really sending messages to your friends from the _Sleep Realm_. Or maybe the monsters in the dark have taken over your phone!" He offered, announcing Sleep Realm loudly and dramatically as if this was the perfect solution. Dan scoffed at this idea and shoved his phone back into his pocket, deciding against concerning himself with his night-time quirks.  
"It's just weird because I could've sworn it hadn't been there before. And it's not just that, why would I pretend to be a girl who committed suicide? That's just... fucked up..." he said, occasionally gesturing with his hands where needed. Sasha followed close behind them, discouraged by the fact that they didn't believe her message. Maybe if she just kept writing messages they would eventually have to accept it as the truth, no matter how absurd they may find it. Dan's back pocket sounded an alarm, reminding him he had scheduled something for this very minute. Surprised, Dan quickly took out his phone to find another message in place of the notification.

'**trust me im real. If you don't believe me, talk to me and ill try and respond' **

Dan scowled slightly as he read the message then looked around him nervously; if this ghost was real, what if she wanted to hurt him. Or worse: what if she was a he and he was some evil demonic ghost out to kill him. Phil noticed Dan's reaction to the message again and came around his shoulder to read it. This time it was hard to believe that Dan himself typed these messages as in the time it would have taken for him to type it out a moment before, Phil had been with him and saw that he hadn't done anything of that sort.

"What do you think, Phil?" Dan regarded his friend curiously, hoping he would provide a more logical answer to this situation as he shoved his phone once again into his back pocket.

"Well we're not technically out in public yet so you won't look like a lunatic if you start talking to ghosts. I guess it's worth a chance. Worst thing would be she doesn't exist and it's all just some prank." He replied with more thought than he himself had given the subject, the words seemed to have just set themselves free from the dark depths of his brain. Dan shifted his weight from one foot to the other and looked around just to make sure nobody noticed him although there was nobody around to.

"Alright…Sasha… if you're real, why don't you prove it… make a sound or something." He suggesting, a part of him hoping this was all a prank and he wasn't living a ghost investigation like he had seen on T.V. as a child; they always ended badly. Sasha jumped around with glee, ecstatic they finally believed her. The next problem she faced, however, was how she could make a sound if she was a ghost.

First she decided just yelling might somehow be enough for them to hear, but only resulted in her feeling self-conscious as this attempt failed. The two were getting impatient waiting for a sound and took one last glimpse around them before Dan announced, "Well, Phil, guess it was all a prank!" he laughed at himself nervously for even believing such a stupid notion of ghosts haunting his cell phone. Their stomachs growled in synchronization reminding the two that they had yet to eat dinner. Sasha stomped her foot angrily, she wanted desperately for somebody to know she was here. In a moment of ghostly adrenaline, she ran forward and tried to push Dan over, knowing it wouldn't result in anything. This time she touched him, though, he felt real and her hands didn't flow through him. Dan staggered forward a step and looked around in utter confusion; the expression mirrored on his counterpart's face. Sasha stared at her hands in disbelief, just a few moments before she had attempted to touch him but it didn't result in anything. Why was it that this time she could touch him as if she were alive again?

Dan felt panic slowly rising up inside him. As he had been walking, he saw Phil in his peripheral field of view so it couldn't have been he who shoved him. He turned around, feeling an eerie presence in his blind spot only to find the same emptiness he had met before.

"Sorry," He began cautiously, "guess I tripped." He concluded, trying not only to convince Phil, but also himself. Phil, who had been standing with his mouth agape, nodded apprehensively and they continued on their short trek to the diner. It was just a short walk away, but at this rate it would take them ages to even cross the street. Sasha wondered if the only reason she could touch him was because she was angry at him. She found some reasoning behind this theory and thought every nasty thought she could about Dan and attempted to push him with all her might. Dan stumbled a few steps forward and attempted to right himself by flailing his arms wildly; it was to no avail and he fell onto his hands and knees on the side of the road.

"Dan?! What'd you do that for?" Phil asked incredulously, unable to understand what he could have tripped on so wildly. Dan lifted himself up with his scratched hands and glared at Phil.

"I didn't do it on purpose! It felt like someone pushed me." Dan said throwing his hands in the air to accentuate his first point. Phil glanced around, ready to pounce on whoever pushed his best friend over so evilly and out of nowhere. Just as before, the streets were nearly deserted aside from an occasional car. Also just as before, Dan seemed like he lost his mind.

"There's absolutely nobody around here, are you sure you didn't just trip yourself up or something?" the older suggested hopefully. Phil never been one to believe in ghosts despite their attempts at the Super Amazing Project and his childhood obsession with the Shadow Realm; this would be no exception. Dan massaged his scratched hands and looked around as well as if to solidify Phil's claims. Sasha smiled arrogantly, exuberant at the fact that she could now touch people who were alive. She felt the tiniest bit guilty, though, that she had been the cause of Dan's small pains. An extension of this ability would be to speak to them, but she wondered if she was yet capable of this. The text messages would have to be enough for now as she was feeling quite emotionally drained. Apparently, people have a much smaller emotional range after death because simply getting excited as she did had tired her out. Dan grunted and looked back at Phil, expecting him to have some magical answer to their confusions.

"Maybe… Maybe the ghost girl doesn't want us to eat dinner! She's trying to starve us!" Phil exclaimed suddenly, his finger in the air. Dan slapped his forehead out of frustration, only just managing to hide his smirk.

"I don't think she cares if we eat at restaurants or not. That's if she's real at all!" Dan added quickly, making sure to point out that he did not believe in this ghost charade. Their stomachs growled in unison once again, pushing their thoughts to the back of their minds. As if in sync they began walking, this time determined not to let anything distract them from their meals. Dan felt the seeds of doubt arise in the back of his mind. If somebody was indeed pranking him, why would they go to such great lengths to do it? Sasha felt her eyes get heavier and she walked closer towards Dan as they strolled until she finally felt herself merge with him. It was a feeling of comfort and warmth, as if she was asleep in the bed she had during life.

* * *

**Thanks again for reading. Again, guess Sasha's name origins to win a picture prize! 3**

** -PhanFictionWriter**


	2. In Every Life There is Unknown

**Update days are every Monday, so beware!**

* * *

**Chapter 2: In every life there is unknown**

Sasha found herself standing over the sleeping figure of Dan, unaware of how she had gotten to that point. She glanced around his room as the memories came flooding back to her once again. She wrapped her arms around herself and walked over to the side of Dan's bed. He still had no idea she was real; once he woke up, though, she promised herself she would change that. Sleeping quietly in front of her, Dan seemed so peaceful; as if he didn't have the weight of a million subscribers, a radio show, and an over-large child flat mate to take care of whilst awake. Sasha turned and looked at Dan's computer desk, she had an idea that would make Dan believe in her whether he wanted to or not.

On the desk, he had a colourful assortment of pens and markers of various sizes and shapes. She grabbed the biggest permanent marker she could find and sauntered over to the wall across from his bed. She glanced at his clock to see how much time she had to write her message. 3:14 A.M., plenty of time until Dan would wake up for her to write a nice convincing message. Looking at her hand, she realized she was holding a real object, a task she struggled with so greatly the day prior. She smirked, wondering if it was some sort of ghostly learning stratagem she did not yet know about. Uncapping the marker, she began writing in big, bold letters across his stark white wall.

'**Dan Dan Dan Dan Dan Dan Dan Dan Dan Dan Dan Dan Dan Dan Dan Dan Dan Dan Dan Dan Dan Dan**'

She laughed, imagining what his reaction would be when he woke up and saw the graffiti across his pristine wall. She felt this was not yet enough to convince the brunette. Under her line of Dans she wrote more; after this there would be no doubt in his mind about her existence anymore.

'**I am real. If I weren't, who wrote this? If I weren't, why do I know you have a picture of Phil hidden in the bottom of your drawers? If I weren't, would I know your full name is Daniel James Howell?**'

She smiled and placed the marker back onto the desk neatly and set out on her next task: to take a picture of Phil while he sleeps and to put it at the bottom of Dan's drawers.

For a while she searched, knowing somewhere they would have a camera as they used one nearly every day. The results of her search turned up video cameras, but not the kind of camera she was looking for. What she needed was a camera that provided an instant picture; an old-fashioned kind of camera that their neighbors might own. Having never walked through a wall in life, she stood next to Dan's unconscious figure and stared at the wall behind his headboard. She closed her eyes and walked towards it. It could only make sense that if she didn't want to touch it the only other choice would be to go through it; and go through it she did. With no great difficulty, she walked through the wall and into a small room illuminated brightly by a red light. Wires hung, connecting two opposing walls together with half-developed pictures clipped onto them as they dried. Intrigued, she cautiously walked towards them to investigate; managing not to step on the developing fluid scattered in buckets across the floor. She reached the pictures and examined the one closest. It showed Dan and Phil in front of their building walking down the street casually. It looked as if they had no idea a stranger was taking pictures of them. She snickered, wondering who could have been so lewd as to photograph the two and keep the pictures for themselves. She moved down the line of hanging pictures, examining each one for a few moments before continuing to the next one. As she got to the end, one in particular caught her eye. She stopped in front of it and leaned it towards it. The picture showed Dan and Phil sitting at Shake-Away looking like they were talking; the only thing that seemed off about it was that Dan's hand was nearly on top of Phil's. The angle the picture was taken might have contributed to this look, but if you didn't think too hard about it, you would assume they were a couple. She couldn't contain herself any longer and laughed boisterously. Once she regained her composure, she spotted a nearly empty camera that would be perfect for her needs. She picked up the camera, looked it over then smirked and walked through the wall back into Dan's room. She tiptoed out of Dan's room and into Phil's as to not wake either. This would prove to Dan she's real, maybe even proving to Phil that Dan did want Phan to be real. She smiled giddily as she took the camera up to her eye and made it her undead quest to bring the two together.

Click!

She snapped a picture of Phil soundly asleep in his bed. The flash illuminated his room and startled him awake, however. She crouched down in front of his bed, hiding the camera from his sight. He glanced around, wondering where the lightning had come from.

"Must've… just been raining." He mumbled sleepily, returning to the comfort of his pillow and instantly falling back asleep. Sasha smiled again and walked into Dan's room, fanning the new picture in her hands. She left the camera on his side table and walked towards his wardrobe to put it below his clothing, face down. Content with her work, she walked back over to Dan, unable to wait another six hours for him to wake up.

She leaned toward him, hoping to wake him just by her presence and breathed on his face. No reaction. She scowled and touched a ghostly finger into his forehead. He began twitching and cringing in his sleep, but did not wake. Getting irritated, Sasha decided maybe yelling would work this time around and shouted his name as loud as she could. Dan shuttered violently and his eyes flew open, startled. He sat up and looked around his still-dark room for the source of his disturbance. He glanced over the opposite wall in his scan, his eyes still adjusting to the darkness of his room, and then snapped back to it as he saw the writing. His expression changed from a fearful confusion to fearful horror.

"Phil?!" Dan shouted to the next room, waking his counterpart from his deep slumber. There was the sound of a body hitting a hardwood floor followed by heavy footsteps heading towards Dan's room and the door burst open to show Phil standing in his pajamas ready to fight whoever caused Dan to scream out in fright. He looked around, wild-eyed and confused as he only saw Dan sitting in his bed unharmed.

"Phil have you been writing on my walls?!" Dan asked incredulously. He didn't believe his own accusations, but he refused to believe that a ghost wrote in permanent marker on a wall which he did not permanently own. Phil frowned and walked towards the side of Dan's bed to get a better look at what he had been staring at. Reading it, Phil's eyes widened and he looked at the dresser in the corner of the room.

"Why do you have a picture of me?" He asked with a tone of curiosity that could have resembled a puppy's as he searched the drawer for a picture.

"I don't!" Dan exclaimed, trying to plead his innocence as he scrambled out of his bed in just his boxers and over to Phil's side. Dan clicked a lamp to life on his side table to better see the picture that was just extracted from the depths of his clothes. They stood frozen, staring at a picture of Phil asleep contently in his bed that looked to have been taken only moments before.

"You absolute freak!" Phil finally said and began laughing with one hand covering his mouth causing Dan to glare at him. He couldn't help himself from laughing along with his flat mate, even if the situation was more puzzling than humorous. Just as their fits of laughter died down, a third voice joined in the joyous chorus of laughs which was unfamiliar to the two. This voice was higher pitched than Phil's and sounded as if it echoed throughout the room yet was barely audible. He looked at Phil whose expression mirrored his own of instant panic. The first thought that came to both their minds was that there was burglar in their flat with them. Phil put the picture down and turned towards the door, suddenly feeling like a stranger in his own home. Dan grabbed the closest thing to him, a guitar controller, and wielded it as a weapon.

"Is someone there?" Phil called into the darkness of the hallway but received no response. Dan tightened his grip on the controller as they both slowly edged towards the den, ready to pounce upon whoever was invading their abode.

Sasha walked behind them curiously. She had not heard anybody enter the apartment nor had she heard any reason for them to be on the defensive. It was just the three of them there and not a soul else. Feeling courageous, she walked out of the hallway and scanned the surrounding lounge for any sign of an intruder. She checked around every couch and counter as the two men rounded the corner, cautiously watching for any sign of movement.

"Come out now!" Dan demanded loudly, stepping into the open for the first time. Again, he was met with only the quiet activity of the London night in response. Their hearts beat faster, the silence worrying them more than if there had been an actual intruder. Sasha stared at him curiously, wondering if they were both hearing the same made up sounds. They couldn't both be going insane but hearing the same things, could they?

"Nobody else is here." She stated, knowing they would not hear her; it was more to reassure herself that there was not something else even she couldn't see hiding away somewhere in the area. Maybe if she provoked them, they would show themselves. As if on cue, they both sucked in a breath of air and looked directly in her direction. Confused, she looked around her to see if they had spotted the intruder before she had. Finding nobody else in the lounge again, she stood in front of the two, eyeing them suspiciously. They blindly gazed throughout the room, searching for the source of the voice they heard.

"If nobody else is here, who are you?" Dan responded the voice finally. If he weren't so scared he would have laughed at a voice saying no one else was there. They both stood up straight, relaxing at the fact that the intruder was female and sounded harmless. Phil remained silent and subtly slid behind Dan's protection during the silence they were greeted with.

"Dan it's like 4 in the morning, maybe we're just hearing things…let's just go back to sleep." Phil pleaded, trying to pull Dan away from the lounge and back to their awaited sleep. Dan scowled and looked behind him at Phil, his eyes illuminated through the darkness like the turbulent sea. In his deep blue eyes, he saw a glint of fear; something he had never seen before in his flat mate. Sasha walked closer to the two and giggled at the sight of the two looking into each other's eyes; an accidental experiment to see if they would react to her voice. Once again they turn to look where the voice emanated from through the darkness.

"So you guys actually can hear me now?" She questioned them, hoping after all her efforts she could finally communicate with them easily. "I'm Sasha." She told them and held out her hand as if they could shake it. Phil hadn't blinked in a few minutes and looked as if his eyes were going to fall out of his head. Dan, on the other hand, had left his mouth hanging open so any fly could make a home in it.

"Well don't look like that, you've known about me for longer than two seconds." She said and laughed at their reactions; she expected better of two twenty-something adult men. Dan turned around and looked at Phil sternly in the eyes.

"Take me to hospital, I'm hearing voices and I need to be sectioned!" He directed Phil, grasping both his shoulders. Phil gave Dan a puzzled look as he could also hear the voice meaning either the two of them were both insane in the same way or what they had been hearing was actually real. Phil looked away from Dan and stared into the spot where he remembered the voice to have come from last as Dan dropped his hands from Phil's shoulders.

"Sasha? You're real?" He questioned her, his voice high in confusion. Dan scowled in response, slightly annoyed that his best friend would fall for pranks so easily.

"Isn't that what I've been trying to prove to you? Nice picture of Phil, by the way, Dan." She said sassily, happily remembering the faked picture in his room. Phil's face seemed to become paler through the darkness as he remembered the startling picture as Dan's became redder.

"I didn't appreciate you writing all over my walls, by the way!" Dan blurted out, suddenly overcoming his embarrassment and scowling at the empty room. His mock-outrage was met with an echoing laugh that resounded throughout the empty lounge. Phil came out from behind Dan and looked around curiously for the source of the voice.

"Phil you're like a puppy." Sasha said suddenly, snickering at Phil's curiosity.

"What? Puppy?" Phil asked incredulously. It was the first time he'd ever been compared to an animal, let alone a mangy dog. "Is that an insult?" He asked and became annoyed. Dan laughed in response.

"Nah… By the way, guys, your neighbor is a freak." Sasha commented nonchalantly; as if this was something everybody was told frequently. With that Sasha once again felt drained and needed rest; she merged with Dan and began her slumber.

"Is there a draft?" Dan asked suddenly, shivering in their nicely warm lounge.

* * *

**I'm looking for criticisms on my writing and if this is a good story or not, review with your thoughts on it (Nit-Pick if needed, I want to know every single little flaw possible) **

**Still no winners on the contest, it's a great prize but if nobody gets it then it's all mine! **

**-PhanFictionWriter**


	3. Progression Through Darkness

**Chapter 3: Progression Through Darkness**

**Hi everyone. Thanks to the person who reviewed! And Pandaneedshug, but he's a given to review :3 ({- That's a kitty face) And I am grateful for his Beta-ing although he was too late to review this one. So if there are tiny errors or if its boring.. sorry.**

**Make sure to read the chapter before if you don't remember what's going on, cause I kinda don't. xD**

* * *

"Sasha, is there any way we would be able to see you?" Phil asked the empty room curiously. He looked around for some sign of movement that would show that there was some presence listening to him. They stood for a few moments in silence, awaiting the response, but received nothing.

"Sasha?" Phil called out again, walking around the room in an attempt to feel her out. He again found nothing but the emptiness of the debt of night.

"Phil, are you cold?" Dan asked his best friend, holding himself and shivering slightly. There were no windows or doors in their flat open that could cause a draft, but Dan still stood there shivering as if he were out in a snowy field.

"No, are you?" Phil responded, oblivious to his friend's restrained shaking.

"Yes, I bloody am!" Dan shouted at his friend, throwing his hands in the air to accentuate the point. "I've been shaking for the past five minutes." He added, rubbing his hands together, desperately trying to create some warmth.

"Dan, why are you shaking like that; are you tired?" Phil asked, realizing his friend must have been freezing, though he couldn't pinpoint a reason. "Maybe you're getting sick." He added doubtfully. Dan scowled at him and walked back into his room.

"I'm going back to sleep where it's warm, wake me if the _ghost_ comes back." He said, sarcastically emphasizing the word ghost as if he still was not convinced of her existence even after she held an entire conversation with the two.

"Dan!" Phil called out to his flat mate, following him to his room. "Sasha said she's following you, maybe you're the only one that can talk to her." Phil suggested, hoping to keep his still shivering friend awake. In truth, the whole situation scared him a little and he would prefer if Dan stayed up with him in case she came back.

"Phil, you already talked to her yourself. Go back to sleep." Dan said, climbing into bed and turning away from his friend. Phil pouted at his resting body, then turned and silently trudged back into his own room. As he lay in his large bed, his mind travelled to all the possible monsters that could be hiding somewhere his eyesight could not penetrate. He closed his eyes and hoped they would leave him alone for the night.

* * *

Phil awoke with a start not an hour later to find a hand on his face. It trailed down the side, tracing his cheek bones tenderly. His eyes followed the hands up to its owner: Dan. This, however, wasn't the Dan that Phil recognized. Though his eyes were wide and awake they only gazed at the far wall, unseeing. His hand moved against Phil's face almost robotically, as if Dan wasn't in control of himself.

"Dan?" Phil called out to him cautiously, moving the hand away from his face and sitting up. Dan's hand dropped to his side and he continued staring into oblivion from the side of Phil's bed.

"Yes?" Phil sighed as he received this response, showing that his friend was at least lucid. This definitely was not Dan; he would never be so formal or talk in such a tone. Phil scooted out of the bed and stood next to his friend, examining his wide-eyed expression. Something seemed off about it more than just the fact that it seemed like he was being mind controlled. He waved a hand in front of his face and realized what the problem was: he was not blinking. As if on cue, a snore sounded from his friend and he came to realize that he must have been sleepwalking. Only he'd never heard of anybody who could sleep walk with their eyes open.

"Dan, you're not right, right now. Let me help you to your room." He said, taking the arm of the taller and leading him through the hallway and into his designated bedroom. Dan walked much slower than when he was awake, it was like he was a dead weight that had to be pulled with all one's might in order for it to move even an inch. They arrived in Dan's room and he stood him next to his bed, unsure of how to get him to comply.

"Dan, wake up and go to bed." Phil instructed, hoping simply commanding him would make him move by his own power. Dan's head turned to Phil and eerily continued its gaze.

"No." His mouth said in the same intonation as the last. Phil grimaced as a chill ran up his spine; this entire ordeal was extremely unsettling.

"Well, why not, then?" He prompted the sleepwalker for a more elaborate response than just 'yes' or 'no'. Dan stayed silent for a moment as if he were thinking over the question. In reality he might have just been taking time for the question to reach his not-so-idle brain.

"Because, Phil," He began slowly, his voice sounding less and less familiar to Phil. It began to sound as if there were two of him; only one of them had a higher tone than the real Dan. Phil stared curiously at his possessed friend. Anyone else would have been scared out of their mind at this point, but being extremely tired and slightly rational he kept calm.

"Because why, Dan?" Phil asked again, getting slightly agitated with the lack of results. He crossed his arms and scowled at his friend as he waited again for a response.

"Because I love you." The voice came finally. This, however, sounded nothing like Dan's and he would never say that to his friend. Phil's expression turned quizzical as he studied his friend, seeing if this was what he really thought or not. If he were honest with himself, he would've found that he did reciprocate these feelings, even if only in the smallest of ways.

"I've had enough of this." Phil said finally, losing his patience for nearly the first time since he had known Dan. He grasped both his friend's shoulders firmly and shook vigorously as he pretended to be shaking a vending machine. "Dan!" Phil called out, determined to make sure his friend came to his senses so they could both return to a peaceful slumber. Dan's eyes finally closed themselves then opened again to blink rapidly.

"Phil, why are you shaking me?!" Dan asked, attempting to stop himself from getting motion sick. Phil immediately stopped his escapade and stared at his friend, not removing his hands. He still wasn't sure if this was the real Dan or if it was whatever possessed him trying to throw him off the scent, so to speak.

"Phil?" Dan questioned, suddenly wondering why he had woken up standing in front of Phil who was staring him down.

Phil was silent for another moment then smiled and released his grasp.

"Good you're awake!" Phil announced, smiling. Dan stared at his friend, obviously confused after being woken up abruptly. Dan broke his staring contest with Phil and gazed around his room, wondering if it would provide some insight into the reason he was awoken.

"Yes, I'm awake." He said sourly, looking back at Phil who seemed a mess with his bed-head and disheveled PJ's. "Now would you like to tell me why you woke me up and why I'm not in my bed? Or am I just dreaming?" He questioned, falling into deep thought as he tried to figure out if he was in a dream or not.

"I had to wake you up; you were in my room petting me." Phil said with a laugh, relieved to have the awake version of Dan back. Like people say, you'll laugh about it eventually.

"What? Petting you? Are you all right, Phil?" Dan asked in disbelief. He had expected to hear a sane answer such as 'I heard the mice in my bedroom!' or 'I had a night fit'. He questioned his friend's mental health when he came to the conclusion that he would never perform such actions as accused.

"You were sleepwalking ... I think." Phil clarified though he didn't seem as sure of his response as he was trying to lead on. Dan sat on his bed and looked at his alarm clock. From the time he woke up to his name being called until this point, nearly two hours had passed and he still needed to get to sleep.

"Oh. Okay, I'm fine now." Dan said, feigning a yawn that way he could continue his slumber undisturbed. "I'm gonna go back to sleep now." he said and lay on his bed for a third time that night.

"But what if you sleep walk again? Maybe I should stay here to protect you?" Phil suggested, hoping he could use this excuse to have Dan around to fight his monsters of the dark.

"I'm not a child Phil!" Dan cried incredulously. He knew his ebony-haired friend had the best intentions, but it seemed like overkill. "Go to sleep, Phil. We can talk in the morning, if you want." Dan assured him, this time issuing a real yawn. Phil stared at him for a moment as if sizing up his chances to force Dan to let him stay in Dan's room.

"Okay, but if I find you touching me in my sleep again I'm going to eat all your cereal in the morning and _not_ buy any more!" Phil threatened teasingly with a smile. Dan mimicked a face of shock and sat up in bed.

"You wouldn't dare?!" He responded dramatically, pointing his finger accusingly at his best friend. Phil smiled in his best Joker impression in response.

"It was just a joke, Dan. Why so...serious?" He said, widening his smile like he saw the Joker do in Batman then both enjoyed a nice laugh.

"G'night, then, Dan." Phil said and walked off back to his room and Dan lay down again, hoping to stay asleep until at least two nights from then. Phil quickly fell into a deep, restful slumber. Dan, however, dreamt through the night of a hideous dark figure which chased him throughout a labyrinth of other looming figures. Though sleep was what he wanted, all he received was fear.

* * *

**Yay**

**Review with every and all mistakes I made. Make a list of every tiny detail that was wrong with it or guesses at what will happen next. Here's one mistake I found: I didn't reach my 3k-4k word minimum for this chapter and the last. Pooey! I will try much harder next time, and I promise they won't get shorter like sometimes happens. Remember: I like all you guys. :)**

**Thank you sincerely for reading this much!**

**Until next Monday,**

** PhanFictionWriter**


	4. Scheming From the Start

**I made up the directions and places in this chapter. Don't go to London and hope to find the designated building where I said it is…'Cause that'd be a waste D:**

**Thank you to KAM wuz here ( u/2549479/KAM-wuz-here ) for being my temporary Beta while Panadaneedshug is on hiatus. **  
**Chapter 4: Scheming from the Start**

* * *

"Dan, wake up! Look outside, it's snowing!" Phil exclaimed, loudly running into Dan's bedroom and shaking him awake. Dan covered his head with the duvet and nestled farther into his pillows. Phil pouted and began poking Dan's shoulder.

"Also, you have to clean the writing off the wall," Phil said, ceasing his incessant poking and pointing at the far wall as if Dan could see through his eyelids.

"By myself?" Dan asked incredulously, sitting up to greet Phil with a yawn. Phil snickered at the lion-like yawn. "It's permanent marker, Phil, that's not gonna come off easily!" Dan explained, finally getting out of his bed and stretching.

"Hi," Sasha's voice echoed through the room, starling the two who had nearly forgotten about their ghost adventure the previous night – almost.

The two looked around, once again trying to locate the origin of her voice but to no avail. Dan walked to his window and looked out, determined to ignore her and hoped for her to disappear.

"Hello, Sasha!" Phil greeted the emptiness happily, more keen to believe now that she supplied sufficient proof.

Sasha strode across the room and stood next to Dan at the window. "Dan? Greet me?" she asked, rather demandingly of the brunette. Startled by the proximity of her voice, his body convulsed impulsively and he took a few steps away.

"Don't be rude, Dan, she's our guest," Phil scolded, noticing his lack of a response. Even though he was still wary of this girl, he was willing to accept the fact that she was at least attempting to be friendly towards the two; if Dan couldn't reciprocate that friendliness, she might not be so happy to see the two next time.

Dan turned to Phil and looked around, still hoping to see some sign of her floating about the room. "Morning, Phil. Why're you so excited about snow?" he questioned his friend. "It snow's so often here that I'd be sure you'd be tired of it by now."

It was evident he was ignoring Sasha on purpose now and had not just forgot about her in the time he was asleep. He treaded out of the room and into the kitchen, followed closely by Sasha stepping lightly behind him. Phil followed the two out of Dan's room and sat on their couch in the lounge as Dan began making breakfast for himself.

"All right, don't greet me, Sleeping Beauty," she retorted snidely after a few moments.

"Make me cereal?" Phil asked innocently, knowing full well that Dan was not a personal chef but hoping to take advantage of the fact that he was already in range of the breakfast materials. Dan grunted affirmatively and took out a second bowl.

"I have an idea of what we can do today!" Sasha suddenly chimed in, startling Dan once again and causing him to spill milk over the counter.

"Really? Is it fun?" Phil asked, hoping to play along with her ideas even though they already had plans to do things that day.

"Yes, are there any amusement parks nearby?" Sasha asked, wondering idly if in London they had a different word for the term she knew so well.  
Phil thought for a second, creating a mental map of the area he was familiar with. "Well there's the London Eye, but that's not much of a park. I think there's one a fair bit away; do you want us to go there with you?" Phil asked, hoping for a negative response as that was the opposite of their plans.

"Yep, I think it will be fun!" Sasha exclaimed excitedly, clasping her hands together and walking towards Phil.  
Dan sat at their breakfast bar and silently ate his and Phil's cereal, trying his best to stay out of their conversation and hopefully be spared of their later antics.

"I haven't been to a fun park in so long!" Phil responded, feeling giddy with excitement resembling a child's; his ocean blue eyes glistening in the white rays reflected off the snow.

Dan put his bowl down harder than intended and closed his eyes for a moment to think, his mood slowly becoming darker.

"Look, Sasha," he began, "I know you think that just because you're here we're going to want you around, but that's exactly the opposite of what I want. I don't believe in ghosts, I don't believe in you, and I want you to just leave us alone!" He shouted the last three words.

Sasha was taken aback by his out-of-character outburst; she would have never expected him to shout like that at anyone except if it were for a joke.

"Dan, that's mean! Sasha's just trying to make the best of our situations and have some fun." Phil explained, feigning the understanding of her motives.

Sasha scowled and stalked over to Dan. She put her hand on his arm and spoke, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean that, Sasha. Please forgive me and we can go to the theme park together." As she spoke, the same words came out of Dan's mouth an octave lower than his normal voice. Anybody who wasn't close to Dan would have assumed the change in level of his voice could have been due his guilt for saying such cruel things, but Phil knew that this was different even for his friend. Dan's eyes were unfocused as he stared at his bowl of cereal silently.

"Thank you, Dan! I knew you would never be mean to anyone," Sasha said cheerfully, letting go of his arm.

"Dan, what's wrong with you?" Phil asked worriedly, hurrying towards his friend as he remembered the scene from the previous night. "You did this last night, as well." He said, grasping his friend's hand and holding it close to see if he could illicit a response.

Dan's blank gaze shifted up to Phil's face, then down at their clasped hands, and back up. "Why are you holding my hand, Phil?" he asked suddenly, his voice returned to normal and his gaze fearfully questioning if his friend might have been in the closet the entire time he knew him.

Phil looked at him seriously, but released his hand. "You were acting like you did last night when you sleep-walked."

Sasha jumped around, clapping happily as she saw the two holding hands and staring into each other's eyes.

"Uh…Okay?" Dan stuttered, unable to make sense of what this meant. "So, theme park, then?" he suggested, turning away from Phil and putting his cereal bowl into the sink behind him. Phil studied him carefully, wondering if he had imagined the look Dan had when he apologized; he seemed to have forgotten his anger at Sasha completely and decided to go along with their plans.

"Dan," Phil began, realizing the weather outside, "the park will most likely be closed because it's, you know, winter and snowing." He pointing out their windows for emphasis.

Dan thought this over for a moment and laughed at himself.

"Aww," Sasha sighed sadly; her plans ruined by Mother Nature. She quickly thought over some other options. "Well, what about a museum? That could be fun, right?" she suggested hopefully.

"Museums are boring," Dan pointed out blatantly, walking over to the couch and plopping himself down with his computer, ready to stay there for the rest of the day. Phil walked around the breakfast bar and began to chow down his already prepared cereal.

"It doesn't have to be boring." Sasha moved to stand in front of Dan and his laptop. "What kinds of museums are around here?"

"I'll check Google," he said, pulling up the search engine and typing in their address. He opened the map over the full screen and looked around it.

"What kinds of museums aren't boring?" he asked, pouring over every inch of the miniature version of their area.

"We can go to… to a modern art museum and make fun of people?" Sasha wondered if Phil had any ideas at this point, but he continued eating his cereal silently.

"Fine," Dan sighed, agreeing to the idea half-heartedly as he found one that was nearby. "There's one a little bit away, we can take the train to Greenwich and get off a few stops early and we'll be there," he explained, closing the Google search and reopening his Tumblr.

"The snow's stopping," Phil said sadly, with his mouth full of half-chewed Shreddies.

Dan looked out the window and was greeted with lightly falling white flakes covering the white rooftops of the London skyline. If the sky wasn't so dismally gray, it would have looked perfect enough to fit on a postcard.

"So maybe tomorrow we can do something even more fun!" Sasha beamed, already planning their next day's adventure.

"Eventually, I have to film a new video, you know. It's been nearly a week since the last one and I don't want to disappoint my Phillions," Phil said, slurping the last of the milk from his bowl and throwing it into the sink. Dan nodded in agreement, half listening as his attention was focused on the computer screen.

"You can do that after the museum if we go now?" Sasha proposed, as Phil grabbed his coat from its resting place on the back of a chair. "Dan," Sasha urged,

"it's museum time."

He minimized the web pages and got up from his comfortable position on the couch, then donned his own coat and furry hat.

* * *

The two stood in front of a large portrait of randomly vivid colours portraying nothing in particular. They stared it down, hoping for some inspiration of its nature to jump out at them, but as they were internet-goers and not avid art fanatics all they achieved was eyestrain.

"Remind me why we came here, again," Dan said to Phil for the third time since their arrival.

Phil shoved his cold hands into his fur-lined pockets and regarded his friend tiredly. "Dan, we're here 'cause Sasha said she had something planned...I think." He was beginning to doubt his own memories of what had been said in their conversation.

"It was a great idea; going to a place that doesn't have heat in the middle of winter so we could be bored out of our minds," Dan commented sarcastically, becoming irate.

Sasha had been absent for nearly ten minutes and the same ten minutes had been wasted trying to interpret something which resembled a Crayon box's vomit. The two had been standing next to each other for so long, some people who passed them by began giving them strange looks; as if they thought the two were an art-adoring homosexual couple.

"Let's look around at other stuff; Sasha will come back when she wants to," Phil suggested, beginning the trek to find something else that might catch their attention. The two walked for a few moments before coming across an open door at the end of a nearly empty hallway; devoid of paintings and people alike.

"Wonder where this goes," Dan said curiously, peering inside the open door to find a huge storage room. It was at least two stories of space up and even more around, filled with curious things covered in rags and suits of armour that might've belonged in an ancient history museum. A decrepit metal staircase caught his attention that lead up to equally decaying scaffolding that ran through the top of the room. Even the ceiling was in a state of disrepair as electrical wires hung down from the holes above in loops, taking up much more space than they should have. If this room was ever used, the layer of dust covering everything said otherwise.

"If you can't read," a gruff male voice came behind Dan, startling him for the third time that day, "I'll read it for you. Says, 'Restricted'." He turned to find a rather tall security guard staring him down angrily and wielding a big stick.

"Sorry," Dan stuttered, the blood rushing to his face as he quickly made his way towards Phil who decided to take a seat on a bench at the other side of the hall. The guard closed the door with a slam and returned to his post at a desk a short while away.

"That room is much cooler than any of the stuff in this crap place," Dan said, plopping down next to his friend on the hard bench and taking a map from his pockets. Phil took the map and looked it over idly.

"What was in it?" he asked, although not as interested in the answer as his question lead on.

"There were suits of armour and stuff. It looked old. Do you think all the museums share stuff like that?" Dan wondered aloud, though not quite understanding what he was asking. Phil looked at him curiously and put the map into his pocket then got up.

"Time to go," he declared as Dan, too, got to his feet and the two marched their way out of the gallery.

"Finally," Dan exhaled happily as they exited the building and stepped into the biting cold wind.

"What do you think happened to Sasha?" Phil asked, attempting to cover his neck with the sides of his jacket to keep the cold out. They trudged along towards the Underground, getting their Oyster cards ready to swipe as to not be growled at by a sea of irritated businessmen.

"Dunno, but if her idea of fun is sitting around in an exhibition hall all day, I don't think I want to hear what else she has planned," Dan admitted, pushing his way through the turnstile. Phil followed just behind him as they looked for the designated train that would take them back to their flat.

"You should give her a chance; it was a last second decision. Besides, she might have something completely super awesome planned to do tomorrow," Phil said, defending the girl he had barely known for a day. He reasoned that if she was planning to do something horrible to the two of them then she would have already done it and not have tried to keep them busy. Or she might have been keeping them busy just for that reason.

The two boarded their train and sat in two consecutive seats to keep from having to keep up a conversation from either side of a stranger. Their conversation ended there, though, and they sat in silence throughout the ride and into their flat whilst checking Twitter and Tumblr on their phones.

"How can people live without the internet?" Dan asked rhetorically, his mind wandering to a time before the internet had existed and with it a time before he had known Phil. He turned his phone off and sat back in his spot on the couch only to maximize the same website that he had just been using on his phone.

"Oh, I have to finish editing my video from yesterday...and clean the wall," Dan said, remembering his duties to the people of the internet and whoever would own the flat in the future. He closed his laptop again and walked into his room to finish editing and uploading his next video; the cleaning could wait...and wait.

* * *

**Thanks for reading Chapter Four. Updates might be a little slow because schedules suck...**  
** -PhanFictionWriter**


	5. The Mark of a Shadow

**It seems it's Monday again! And just as promised here's the nicely long chapter, edited by Kam wuz here! Enjoy it and look for Chapter six on Thursday.**

**Chapter 5: The Mark of a Shadow**

* * *

For the first day in what seemed like forever, the sun over London shone through its thick cloud layer and broke into Dan's bedroom window. The rays made their slow progression towards his face which would eventually wake the brunette up. His brain, however, wanted to beat the sun to it and decided to wake him up just before the warmth reached his face. He opened his eyes and looked around, as if checking that everything was still where he had left it the night previous. He rubbed his eyes with the back of his hands, sat up, and stretched his tall frame with a yawn. He threw his legs over the side of the bed as his eyes landed on the graffiti still covering the opposite wall. Scowling, he decided he should at least try to clean it today, so he rose and began his way towards the coffee-maker.

"Hello, Dan!" a voice rang out in his ear.

This wasn't the first time she had startled him but it would certainly be the last. As he recovered from the shock, he made a mental note to remember her existence for the next morning.

"Good morning, Sasha," Dan said tiredly, still in his morning stupor.

He pressed the button to initiate the coffee-making process and turned to greet his invisible friend, though there was nothing to greet. He remembered the events of the previous day and wondered once again where she had gone. Judging quickly that if she assumed he was too tired to think she might answer the question casually, hoping he would forget it by the time he was fully awake, he decided to ask.

"So where'd you go yesterday?" He let out a yawn even a hippopotamus would be proud of. "You left us looking at framed stains and everyone was looking at us weird. It's like seeing people our age is blasphemy. They were all old anyway," he added, remembering the lack of youth in what seemed like the entire museum.

There was silence in response for a few moments as Sasha pondered how to answer the question.

"Oh, you know ghosts, we get tired so easily! It's much easier to just take a nap than to try and function tired," she explained, seeming a bit too eager to get Dan to believe this and saying it much too loudly for the morning. "Sleep cycle of a newborn baby, it seems."

Dan heard rustling and a lion-like roar coming from his counterpart's bedroom and knew that he was also awake. It could have either been the coffee bubbling happily behind him or Sasha bursting with too much energy in the morning. Perhaps energy is contagious and Phil had caught some of it.

Slowly but surely, Phil made his way out of his room and into the lounge. Phil was usually the one up first and not usually grumpy in the morning, but today seemed to be an exception.

"Hello, Phil!" Sasha greeted him happily. Her voice seemed to have changed positions from the last time Dan had heard it.

Phil grumbled in response and plopped down on the couch, seemingly ready to fall back asleep.

"Phil, do we have any cleaning supplies?" Dan asked in an attempt to keep his friend awake until he felt ready to function. "I wanna get rid of the marker on my wall."

Phil sat up and looked back at his friend in thought. "I don't think so. You making coffee?" he asked, smelling the brewing magic and waking him up. He got up and headed towards the coffee machine as if it had a siren call.

"Yup," Dan verified. "I'm gonna head out to Tesco and get some supplies, because if the landlady sees that wall, we'd have to find a new place to live," Dan said gravely, wondering if there would be any other place they _could_ live after they all hear of his antics at his current residence.

"Why would Mrs. Hardcastle decide to inspect your room all of a sudden?" Phil questioned his friend's logic, attributing the random fear of exposure to guilt.

"Who wouldn't want to see my room?" Dan responded, suddenly in a playful mood.

Phil smirked in response and edged closer to the brewer, stroking it romantically. "Come on, beautiful, you know you want to make me happy, right?" Phil cooed, determined to out-do Dan in the random suggestiveness.

Dan laughed and leaned over the counter as well. They were now beginning the battle of the brewer.

"Hey, sexy lady, I bet you wanna make that coffee for me faster, dontcha?" Dan tried persuading it as if it were a real female; though if the brewer were a human, it still wouldn't have worked.

Sasha stood behind them, unable to comprehend what was occurring.

Phil leaned in closer and put his mouth to its top. "I know you want to please me…Go ahead and do it," he whispered, his voice low in fear of Dan stealing his material.

Just as Dan was about to try his hand at it once again, it stopped gurgling and signaled it was completed.

"It likes me better, it likes me better!" Phil sang, getting mugs out of the cluttered cabinets and preparing to drink the life-liquid.

Dan pouted and took a cup from Phil, placing it under the spout. "Well I get first dibs, then!" he announced, filling the cup halfway and racing to the milk jug.

Phil had a brilliant idea during this process: Dan would take longer preparing his coffee than he would drinking it. He put his cup under the spout and filled it up nearly half way. Smelling the black liquid, he sipped from it carefully then gulped the contents down. Black coffee and Phil never went well together. Dan began laughing as he finished his coffee-perfection. Phil spluttered, stole the milk from Dan, and chugged it in an attempt to counteract the pure coffee-ness.

"Remind me to never drink it without milk and sugar EVER again," Phil said, drinking the entire rest of the milk and sighing happily.

"You sure showed me," Dan laughed, enjoying the day already.

Sasha giggled along, realizing they were just being playful and didn't actually believe that the coffee machine was human. If they had thought that, she would have had to take some serious action. Remembering Sasha was still with them, Dan turned in a random direction and looked for some hint of where to speak to.

"So what are we doing today, Sasha?" he asked her thoughtfully, He wasn't too keen on cleaning for the entire day so he hoped she had something more fun planned. It was slowly becoming that Sasha was replacing all their friends, but Dan didn't quite mind. Although it had only been a few days, he felt like Sasha had been his friend for much longer than that.

"I kind of like the idea of you cleaning up my mess on your wall." Sasha smiled playfully, knowing he was looking for a way to get out of doing work. "Maybe Phil could help?" she suggested, hoping that if she got the two of them together doing something they might realize something they had been denying for a long time.

Phil looked up curiously. "What am I doing?" he asked, as he had been relishing in his newly-made coffee rather than listening to their conversation.

Dan rolled his eyes and smiled. "She wants you to clean up my room for me," he answered slyly, hoping to get Phil to do all of the work for him. Just like Tom Sawyer he would get his friend to do work by using his words.

"Isn't it _your_ room?" Phil questioned, noticing the failing logic in the request. Dan is just not a Tom Sawyer type. Dan scratched the back of his head as he tried to think of a way out of the situation.

"Well I have to go to Tesco now…bye!" he said quickly, grabbing his coat and keys then rushing out the door.

Phil sipped the last of his coffee and put both mugs into the dishwasher.

"Wanna watch me play Sonic, Sasha?" Phil asked his ghostly friend as he headed towards the game console.

"Sure!" she responded happily, and made herself as comfortable as possible on the couch next to him.

* * *

"Honey, I'm home!" Dan announced, as he mocked the American T.V. show and made his way back into the flat, carrying many bags. Sasha smiled giddily at this announcement. He waddled his way over to the kitchen and placed them carefully on the counter, sighing with relief once his hands were freed.

"That's a lot more than you went out for," Phil commented, ending his game and making his way over to investigate the bags. He peeked in the first one he reached and found a King-Size box of Malteasers and a quart of Vanilla ice cream.

"Dan, this is hardly cleaning supplies," Phil said, taking his beloved Malteasers out of the bag and using them as evidence against his friend.

Dan pouted at his friend, ready to argue his way out of buying all the snacks. "I did get some cleaning supplies," he said, pulling a sponge out of one of the numerous bags and showing it, "see?"

"What about the rest of this stuff?" Phil asked, reaching into another bag and finding a box of Pop Tarts. His eyes widened and he held them close to his chest. "Thank you, Dan! I thought they didn't sell these in England?" He held the item as if it were a fragile piece of china and placed it on the table.

"Remember that one guy we bought the Twinkie from a few years back?" Dan began with a question, gesturing behind him in reference to the past. Phil remembered the Twinkie well and suddenly felt his love of Pop Tarts fizzle out. "He's got a bunch of American snacks we don't have here," he finished, pulling out another snack and waving his hand in front of it, sardonically reminiscent of the female on Wheel of Fortune.

"Are they deadly?" Phil wondered, opening the box to check their validity. He was greeted by the silver plastic of their individual wrappings still intact.

Sasha made herself somewhat useful and looked into each of the other bags and verifying that their contents were indeed food. Conversations between the two usually made her feel more like a ghost than she already was.

"I don't think he'd be allowed to sell sweets if they were deadly," Dan reasoned, pulling out the sponge and bottle of cleaner again. "Feel like helping? I've got two sponges." He meant it as more of a demand than inquiry.

"Actually, I have to start filming another video today," Phil answered with a snide smile. Dan could always tell when Phil tried to lie to him. It was as if just the act of lying and feeling like he was getting away with it made Phil so happy he couldn't stop himself from smiling; a dead giveaway.

"Liar, you just finished one a few days ago!" Dan shouted, though he wasn't angry; more amused.

Phil began laughing and covered his mouth with his hand as if to keep himself from spitting everywhere. Dan threw a sponge at him and made his way to his room to begin the grueling process of cleaning. People everywhere dreaded the day when they were called upon by the heavens to clean their designated object. Dan wondered if some cultures prayed to their gods to keep them safe from having to clean things. Phil followed him with the sponge that had just attacked him and prepared himself to be bored out of his mind.

Dan sprayed on the cleaner and hoped it would be enough to get the 'permanent' marker off the wall. If not they may have to resort to painting it over. If there was one thing Dan hated more than cleaning, it was manual labor of the painting variety. Sasha made herself at home and sat on Dan's bed, content to watch them work for the rest of the day if need be.

* * *

"Finally," Dan sighed, straightening his back out and looking at the sudsy wall. There were bubbles covering its entirety, but not a marker stain in sight. He picked up some towels and quickly dried the wall, then looked at their handiwork. It was a slightly darker colour than the rest of the walls, but unless you were looking at it discriminatorily you wouldn't have been able to tell there was once writing on it. Phil threw his sponge onto the pile of used towels and fell back onto Dan's bed. He felt a chill run up his spine and looked at the window.

"It's cold all of a sudden," Phil remarked, rubbing his arms in an attempt to warm himself. Sasha scowled and scooted to the other end of the bed; she did not take kindly to people laying on her. "Never mind, I'm better," Phil said, relaxing on the bed again. Their stomachs growled in unison and Dan looked at the clock; it had taken them three hours to clean the wall completely and it was time for lunch.

"I think this masterpiece calls for a celebration," Dan said, spreading his arms and looking at the newly cleaned wall. The dirty supplies could wait to be moved, they weren't in a rush.

"Shakeaway...?" Phil asked excitedly; he loved Shakeaway and couldn't wait to try a new combination.

"Shakeaway," Dan agreed happily, and they made their way out of the room to get their jackets. Sasha got up and followed them curiously. She hadn't heard of Shakeaway and was eager to see what this place they loved so much was all about.

"Isn't it a little cold for shakes?" she asked, assuming that's where it got its namesake from. She looked out the window and saw the remnants of the snow still covering the city like a blanket. If they really wanted a shake they could make one themselves with the leftover coffee.

"It's never too cold for Shakeaway!" Phil corrected in a singsong voice, already at the door and waiting for Dan to open it for him.

"You're like a giant puppy," Dan said, and chuckled. "I'm sending you back to the kennel!"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO..!" Phil cried dramatically, falling to his knees and pounding the ground. Dan got a kick out of this and began to laugh boisterously, Phil and Sasha joining in only moments later. Once the laughing died down, which occurred quickly, Dan opened the door and stepped out.

"Hi! I heard you guys laughing and was wondering what it was about!" a tall, effeminate male exclaimed the second he saw Dan and Phil. The male seemed a bit familiar to Dan, but he couldn't place him. He had dirty blonde hair and was about Phil's height, wearing an old fashioned camera around his neck and Hawaiian khakis; he resembled a lost tourist in a way.

"Um," Dan spluttered, having no idea what to say to this stranger. The man, who looked to be at least in his 20's, smiled expectantly at them. He obviously had no idea Dan was at a loss for his name.

"Hi? Who're you?" Phil asked amiably; he was always the friendlier of the two and usually the one to free Dan of awkward situations. Phil noticed the man's face fall slightly, but only just.

"I figured you wouldn't remember me. My name's Mark, your neighbor?" He held out his hand, which Dan only glared at the hand, deep in thought, until Mark retracted it slowly. Nowhere in his memory was there a Mark as a neighbor, as if he just popped into existence for this one moment. Sasha glided out behind them and smiled at Mark; though nobody could see her, she felt it was a needed action seeing as nobody else was extending the hand of friendship to him.

"Well, seeing as you guys don't remember me, why don't we go to Shakeaway and have a chat? That way you can get to know me better and we can be friends!" Mark suggested, throwing his free hand in the air while the other held a firm grip on the camera.

Dan raised his eyebrows and wondered if he had been listening in on the conversation. "Uh, no, that's fine. We just had lunch and are not in the mood for it…but thanks anyway?" Dan fumbled, looking for some excuse to not go with this guy. Though he seemed nice enough, he didn't want to have to talk to him every time he saw him in the hallways; an awkward silence would be much more bearable than trying to make conversation with somebody he doesn't actually like.

"Oh, well, we could go somewhere else if you like?" Mark ventured. He desperately wanted to get to know these two and would do anything to be their friends.

Phil began walking towards the lift slowly and pressed the button as if he were an undercover spy. "That's alright; we're just heading out quickly… to get some fresh air. It was nice talking to you."

Dan tried to end the conversation by cycling through various excuses and ways to say goodbye. The lift beeped and opened its metallic doors for them to clamber into, relieved to have a way to escape him. Dan punched the door close button a few times and they relaxed as it began to descend.

Sasha had not got in with them and instead stayed behind to talk to Mark. She approached him cautiously, as to not scare him.

"It was a good try, Mark, maybe next time?" she tried soothing him, worried he might give up in light of this failure.

Mark sighed, but did not feel like giving up. "There won't be a next time Sasha, it's clear they don't want to be my friends. But like you said, their relationship needs protecting from themselves and I'm just the man to do that. I'll watch over it like Batman watches over Gotham," Mark remarked, ending his mini monologue with a clenched fist and a strong resolve in the face of defeat.

Sasha smiled; she was glad to have found such a strong-willed person to help her. "Until next time, I bid you adieu." She gave him a goodbye and followed Dan and Phil out of the building. Being a ghost was a lot easier when you had some friends to rely on. Perhaps Mark would come in handy later on.

* * *

**Did you notice the Name Drop up there? If you don't know whose last name that is.. well.. (Insert something witty here)**

**Thanks for reading,**

** PhanFictionWriter**


	6. Oops

**One day delay, I'm out of inspiration today and could use the extra day to finish the half this chapter.. Pretend tomorrow is Thursday and everything will be okay... Oops :D**

**-PhanFictionWriter**


End file.
